Another Typical Adventurer Assessment - Part 1

This... kinda reminds me of the school infirmary.

Di Reids had instructed Kamiro to relax on one of the beds. It was more comfortable than he expected, and his eyes grew heavy. It didn't help that he'd gotten little rest since coming to this world.

He sank into the coziness of the bed and couldn't help but reminisce of the moments he would spend in his high school's infirmary. Whenever he needed to get away, Ms. Yua was kind enough to let him use it as his sanctuary. Perhaps this was why it seemed so peaceful in Di Reid's office, and even Di Reids himself somewhat reminded him of Ms. Yua. They both had a similar warmth.

The memory of his last interaction with her still lingered...

Kamiro opened the door to his high school's infirmary. "You could at least knock you know," A long black-haired beauty said. She had it tied in a ponytail—Kamiro's weakness.

Ishida Yua was the school's health teacher and ran the infirmary. The 24-year old woman was popular among both the boys and girls, and she was one of the sparse few whose outer beauty matched her personality. She sat with her legs crossed, typing away on her laptop. Black pantyhose rode up her thin legs, vanishing underneath her skirt, and an open lab coat hung over her white collared shirt, unbuttoned just enough to make a gaze linger. She was the ideal woman; Kamiro had come close to proposing to her outright when they first met a year prior.

He dropped on the infirmary bed face down.

Ms. Yua swiveled her chair and faced him. "You didn't stay up all night playing games again, did you?"

Kamiro's voice was muffled. "Ah. No..."

She sighed. "Were you able to pay your respects?"

Kamiro turned to lay on his back and nodded.

"I'm glad," she said. "You don't look well, though. You're not actually sick for once, are you?" She got up and placed her forehead on his, making Kamiro's heart race. "Well, your temperature is normal. You really didn't get enough sleep, did you? I've told you, the most important things a growing boy needs is sleep, and a girlfriend."

I can agree with the sleeping part... "Are you saying you'll go out with me?"

"Try asking again in a few years."

"So, you're saying there's a chance?"

Ms. Yua chuckled while Kamiro did a celebratory fist pump.

"You're right though, I didn't get much sleep last night."

Ms. Yua's expression softened.

"Oh, but don't worry. It wasn't because of my grandpa..."

Her expression turned into a glare just as fast. "So, it was because—"

"A-And also, not because of gaming or anime." Kamiro had a wry smile.

"Then?"

"It's... those dreams again."

"I see." She smiled and turned back to her laptop. "You have a shift tonight, right? Get as much rest as you'd like."

Kamiro nodded. "Thanks."

The infirmary was the only place in the school that Kamiro felt at peace, and mostly due to Ms. Yua. When he first met her a year ago, apart from her beauty, he didn't think much of her. It wasn't until he discovered her secret that he really began to get to know her.

Ishida Yua was a closet otaku. She wasn't a hardcore geek, but she did have an obsession with mecha anime, her favorite being Macross Frontier. In his early days of big city living, Kamiro had run into her at a figurine store; she had a Ranka Lee figure in her hand. Her flimsy disguise might've duped others, but not him.

"Ms. Yua, did you catch that new isekai anime the other night?"

"Hmm, I did, but they're all starting to become too cliché for me."

"What? The clichés are part of what makes them great. All these new anime are always trying to reinvent the wheel." Kamiro laid with his eyes closed. "There's nothing wrong with the tried and true."

Ms. Yua chuckled. "If you say so."

Throughout his first year in high school, and away from his rural town, Kamiro frequently found himself going to the infirmary, the least of which was due to illness. He had tried to keep Ms. Yua at a distance, but before he realized, they had developed a special relationship. No longer were they just student and teacher; she had grown to become a sort of mentor figure to him, and more importantly, someone he considered a friend.

"You awake, kid?" Di Reids snapped a few times, bringing Kamiro back from his memory.

Kamiro groaned but remained calm, and his eyes no longer opened after every blink.

"Great. Stay just like that. I need you in a state of calmness for my spell to take effect. We should be good now," said Di Reids. "Invocabo Liber: Simulation."

A mirage-like ripple hovered over Kamiro.

This feeling... A sense of déjà vu slightly filled him while he sank through the bed and into complete darkness. He knew he was asleep, but he felt awake. It was a somewhat familiar feeling, occurring to him during restless nights back in his apartment in his world—a waking dream.

Kamiro stood in complete silence, surrounded by nothing but black. Yet, it was comforting.

"Welcome to my 'Simulation." Di Reid's disembodied voice echoed through the emptiness. "Think of it as a dream, one that I have some control and insight over. But for this first part of the assessment, it's mostly on you."

This is... it's as if he's talking through me.

Kamiro couldn't do anything but stand still; Or rather, it felt as such. Even while he walked in the darkness, there was no sense of direction. He was just existing.

"Have you ever heard of sensory-deprivation?" Di Reids said.

"I might've heard the term." One of the many random and vague bits of knowledge I have, thanks to the internet. I'm surprised they know of it in this world.

"It's not something that is too well known in the kingdom, but the basic idea is as the name implies; to deprive the senses of their normal external stimuli. And to test magic affinity, I developed a method based on this same idea."

Well, I guess that would explain the darkness.

"You see when in a dream, the mind can't distinguish it from reality, so with my 'Simulation' ability, I can simulate an environment where all five senses are entirely deprived. In doing so, the user's magic affinity manifests itself through various activations of the five senses."

"I-I see."

"Ha-ha, I know it can be a bit confusing. It's best to just experience it first-hand. Relax, and you'll be fine."

I hope he's not implying that I won't be fine if I can't relax? "Hey, ah, Di Reids? I'm not so sure about this..."

"..."

"D-Di Reids?"

The voice had vanished, and Kamiro's pulse increased the more he called out because, not only did he no longer hear Di Reids' voice, but also his own. His mouth moved, his vocal cords vibrated, but no sound would come out. What is this?!

In complete darkness, all he had was the sound of his heavy breathing, but as time crawled by, even that sound began to fade away.

It seemed hours had passed, and only the sensation of his own being remained. Is this what being dead was like? He wasn't sure. Kamiro no longer felt even his own pounding heart, or let alone hear his own thoughts to be able to contemplate such a question. All five senses had vanished.

Until... within the endless expanse of the silent dark void. A lone echo. Of what? He could not tell, but Kamiro clung to it like it was his only lifeline. The echo grew louder, fading in and out of existence. Never again would he take hearing for granted.

It... it's beautiful... Kamiro was in complete bliss at the realization that he could hear his own thoughts again. All the while, the echo began to become more discernible.

"It... it's beautiful..." The echo of a disembodied voice said.

When Kamiro fell silent, so did his surroundings.

"Wait. Come back!" he said, now able to hear his own voice again.

"Wait. Come back!" This time, the echo came back much louder, and Kamiro began to grasp what it was.

"It's... me," he said.

Time ticked by, and only silence filled the area anew. For a second, Kamiro thought everything was over, but without warning, the same echo returned, consuming everything around him.

"It's... me, it's... me, it's... me, it's... me, it's... me!" With each one louder than the last, the relentless echoes overwhelmed him. They continued, and Kamiro began to lose himself. ...The echoes abruptly stopped and he found himself again in the dark void with his sense of hearing back to normal.

What the hell is 'Simulation', some torture ability?

This time, it came quickly. Kamiro's returned sense of taste and smell was overpowered by a scent that filled the area. This smell... It's unbearable. I can taste it down my throat.

He broke into a fit of coughing while the strong odor and taste consumed his body. It was a culmination of a variety of smells and flavors. Sweet, sour, salty, spicy, impossible to discern. The sensation was overwhelming, but Kamiro had no choice but to endure it.

It felt like an eternity, but like before, just when Kamiro was nearing his breaking point, the phenomenon stopped.

He struggled to recover, gasping for air—the void leaving no trace of what had occurred. I don't know how much more of this I can take...

The peace was short-lived. The next sensation began, but at least now, Kamiro knew what to expect, even if it was probably something terrible. The complete feeling of his body finally returned, and an intense manifestation of butterflies filled his stomach.

"Wait. Am I... falling?!"

The sensation was coupled with a strong force of wind surrounding his body as if falling down what seemed like a bottomless pit. It reminded Kamiro of the amusement park his grandfather once took him to as a child, and he hated rollercoasters precisely because of this feeling. What seemed like hours had elapsed, and riding a rollercoaster was paradise compared to this. By this point, splattering on the ground would've been a much-welcomed relief. Unfortunately, that relief appeared like it would never arrive. More time progressed with the increasingly unbearable sensation of free-falling. And just when Kamiro was about to lose himself in the complete hopelessness of falling in endless darkness...

a... light?

Out in the distance, a white light was visible, growing more prominent within Kamiro's endless descent, eventually engulfing him until there was nothing by brightness all around. He found himself in a large empty area, no longer falling but standing. All of his senses seemed clear. Sound, taste, smell, touch, and sight; they were sharper than they'd ever been.

"What is that?"

A grand brightness emanating from what appeared to be some being, was the light source. It shined like an otherworldly rainbow made of a myriad of different shades and colors, but the being was too bright to look at directly. Kamiro unconsciously made his way towards it while shielding his eyes from the inextinguishable glow. Warmness permeated his outreached hand the closer he got, but just as his fingers were about to make contact... everything vanished.

***

Kamiro was still in the 'Simulation,' but it was just a regular space instead of a dark void.

"I... should start with an apology. I'm sorry, kid," Di Reids said. He was no longer a disembodied voice, but instead, a projection of himself. "If I knew it would have been this intense for you, I would have never—"

"What kind of atrocity of a magic assessment do you give people?!" Kamiro said. The experience was maddening and nearly unhinged him.

Di Reids forced a chuckle. "Everyone has a somewhat different experience, but never have I seen something this intense occur to someone. Unfortunately, during the magic part of the assessment, once it has begun, I cannot end it. What you experience is coming from yourself; my spell just provides the platform to study it."

Kamiro slowly regained his composure. His body returned to a normal state, and it almost seemed like he'd gone through a realistic dream, or more like a night terror.

He let out a massive sigh of relief. "It doesn't matter anyway. I told you, there was no point doing this for me since I don't have magic."

"You're still saying that even after my explanation from before?"

Kamiro stared at the featureless floor. "..."

Di Reids paused, appearing to be in thought. "Leaving aside the tiny amount of Liber magic everyone is born with, I could see why you'd think that. But, even then... that's not the case here..."

"What do you mean?"

"You... well, your results, I have seen nothing like it."

Kamiro's face showed his surprise.

"To some extent, you were right. There was not a trace of any elemental magic affinity, which is almost unheard of. But when it came to Liber magic affinity... It might be best I go over the details of exactly how my magic assessment works."

Kamiro nodded. It can't be... can it?